Deadline approaching for entities submitting Modern Slavery Statements

Entities with a reporting period of 1 January to 31 December are reminded that their annual Modern Slavery Statement must be submitted to the Department of Home Affairs by no later than 30 June 2022.

Why do I need to report?

Modern slavery describes situations in which offenders use coercion, threats, or deception to exploit victims and undermine their freedom.

Australia implemented the Modern Slavery Act 2018 (Cth) on 1 January 2019 (the Act). The Act established a national modern slavery reporting requirement. As part of this requirement, large businesses and other entities with an annual revenue of at least AUD$100 million are required to prepare and publish an annual Modern Slavery Statement.

The statement covers an entity's reporting structure, operations, and supply chains. It requires an organisation to identify any modern slavery risks that might be present in each of these areas and how it intends to combat them.

Updates since the last report

There have been no legislative changes since the Act was introduced. However, in November 2020 the Australian Border Force (ABF) released a modern slavery update, which identified key areas for improvement amongst reporting entities. These included:

• greater awareness and identification of the nature, context and extent of modern slavery risks in the organisation or group
• increasing consultation with entities owned or controlled by the reporting entity and a description of that consultation
• providing evidence of the statement being approved by an entity's board; and
• reporting on the effectiveness of actions taken by reporting entities to manage or address previously identified modern slavery risks.

Access the ABF's full update here.

The ABF has also released a Modern Slavery Statement Annexure, which provides useful information about what needs to be included in the statement. Access the annexure here.

Lander & Rogers' modern slavery risk assessment tool

Lander & Rogers has developed a simple and cost-effective risk assessment tool to identify risk levels and assist clients to complete their Modern Slavery Statement. The two-tier process allows users to input all relevant supplier information; the tool will then assign a risk rating to that supplier.

This tool makes it quicker, easier, and more cost-effective for businesses to identify higher risk suppliers and investigate them more thoroughly for their Modern Slavery Statement and future policies and procedures.

If you require any assistance with preparing your new or updated Modern Slavery Statement or would like more information on the risk assessment tool, please contact a member of our team.

Photo by Beatriz Perez Moya on Unsplash